Iran’s Annual Trade With EAEU to Hit $15 Billion

Date: 24 November 2019 - 21:37

News ID: ۷۳۰۸۰

TEHRAN (Dispatches)- Managing Director of Aras Free Trade Zone (FTZ) Mohsen Nariman said on Sunday that the 280 million population market of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) with an $800 billion worth economic capacity is full of opportunities for Iran, adding that his country’s annual trade with the union is expected to reach $15 billion.
Nariman said in a press conference with Armenian media activists that the agreement on the establishment of the Free Trade Zone of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) has been implemented since October 23.
The Eurasian Economic Union is an economic union of states located in the central and Northern Asia and Eastern Europe. The Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union was signed on 29 May 2014 by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, and came into force on 1 January 2015.
He said that trade with the Eurasian Union countries could contribute up to 3% of Iran's trade with the Eurasian Union, raising to about $15 billion a year.
Nariman added that fruits, greenhouse products, such as cucumbers and tomatoes, nuts such as pistachios, raisins, and dates, food and fruit industries, fishery products such as shrimp, caviar and fish and poultry and eggs are among the products that Iranian traders can benefit from tariff reductions under the agreement.
Regarding the announcement of Aras plans to connect Iran-Armenia railway, Nariman said, "We currently have two study plans to revive Aras Free Trade Zone transit capacity in the rail sector. It will connect the city of Jolfa from the west to the Soraya spring on the Turkish border and from the East to Norduz and Aslanduz.”
Aras Free Trade Zone is situated in the neighborhood of the Nakhichevan autonomous region and Armenia, 137 km from the city of Tabriz.
The city of Jolfa as the center of this industrial-trade zone has a record of a hundred years in the field of trade and customs activities and is the joint border between Iran and Nakhichevan and is the busiest passenger border in Iran after Tehran airports.
Aras Trade-Industrial Free Zone connects Iran to the Caucasus, Russia and East Europe economic zones.